MSAM: Modular Statistical Analytical Model for MAC and Queuing Latency of VLC Networks under ICS Conditions

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The overall impression regarding the paper is that it's an interesting subject and the research is well conducted and presented.

Please try to avoid cohort citations (e.g. line 42, 77, 89...).

Also, verify the consistency of acronyms (e.g. in fig.1 once is in upper case and once in lower case).

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We highly appreciate the time and efforts dedicated to reviewing our manuscript and your constructive comments and invaluable suggestions to improve the contents of our paper entitled " MSAM: Modular Statistical Analytical Model for MAC and Queuing Latency of VLC networks under ICS Conditions ". The all-out effort has been expended to address the comments and incorporate them in the revised manuscript accordingly.

In the following, please find our responses to your comments where the normal typeface is used to present your comments, and bold to our responses; all modifications to the original manuscript in response to all comments are marked up using the "Track Changes” function in the enclosed document  electronics-1228031-track changes.docx.

• The overall impression regarding the paper is that it's an interesting subject and the research is well conducted and presented.
• We are so pleased that you see the value and merit of our work.
• Please try to avoid cohort citations (e.g. line 42, 77, 89...(.
• Thanks for this suggestion; all citations have been carefully checked with respect to their relevance and importance in supporting the contextual arguments. All of those citations that add no additional information are removed; please see lines 42, 51, 108, 201, 256, 453 and 518. However, some cohort citations are kept as we opine that they can aid us in persuading the reader that (i) the adopted assumption is used by a large number of works as in lines 104, 243, 410, 413 and 414, (ii) the proposed approach differs from most of the related works as in lines 90, and 91 and (iii) the considered problem is important and has received substantial research efforts as in lines 77, 83, 440.
• Also, verify the consistency of acronyms (e.g. in fig.1 once is in upper case and once in lower case(.
• We do apologise regarding this mistake; figure 1 has been reproduced with all consistent acronyms. Furthermore, revision for the whole manuscript has been conducted to remove such issue.

Reviewer 2 Report

See attached file

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We highly appreciate the time and efforts dedicated to reviewing our manuscript and your constructive comments and invaluable suggestions to improve the contents of our paper entitled " MSAM: Modular Statistical Analytical Model for MAC and Queuing Latency of VLC networks under ICS Conditions ". The all-out effort has been expended to address the comments and incorporate them in the revised manuscript accordingly.

In the following, please find our responses to your comments where the normal typeface is used to present your comments, and bold to our responses; all modifications to the original manuscript in response to all comments are marked up using the "Track Changes” function in the enclosed document  electronics-1228031-track changes.docx.

• A well written & technical presented paper which has very good contributions to the development of wireless applications under IEEE 802.15.7 protocol. The model’s outcomes from the simulations are well presented and reasonable.
• We were gratified that one of those experts in the field can see the merit of our works and its contribution to the related body of knowledge.

• However, the paper could be much better if the affected of physical topologies in each scenario is presented and analysed such as locations, orientations or transmitted power (which are believed to give significant variation to the simulate results e.g., change in number of network’s hidden nodes)
• We definitely acknowledge that investigating the effects of the physical parameters on the network's performance can provide meaningful insights into the operation of the protocol. Indeed, one of our ongoing work attempts to provide a comprehensive evaluation for the protocol under different physical parameters, retransmission schemes and channel models. We are planning to use MSAM as the base for this evaluation so that rigorous quantification for their effects on the protocol can be obtained. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a novel analytical model and to substantiate its integrity by comparing its results with the simulation outcomes. Hence, we considered those scenarios that are pertaining to this contribution with this aim to keep our focus on the assessment of the integrity of the proposed model rather than discussing its performance.

Reviewer 3 Report

This paper presents an interesting and novel model for multiple access control (MAC) in VLC networks, as well as for calculations of queuing delays and other parameters of these networks. It is named a Modular Statistical Analytical Model (MSAM). The mathematical tools used for its development are partly the same or similar to those used in another paper of one of the authors of this manuscript. I mean here the paper entitled "Analysis of Queuing Delay and Medium Access Distribution over Wireless Multihop  PANs" by M. Baz et al. However, the method and methodology mentioned were applied there to a quite different type of networks. A novelty of the MSAM model is undisputable. In particular, the fact that it takes into account collisions with transmissions from hidden and exposed nodes should be underlined. The results achieved and presented are valuable, and well documented.

Some typos occur in the manuscript as, for example, "is appeared" on page 7, "3.2. Derviaion" on page 13 and some others.

Moreover, in my opinion, abbreviations HNC and ENC occurring in Table 1 should be explained before.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We highly appreciate the time and efforts dedicated to reviewing our manuscript and your constructive comments and invaluable suggestions to improve the contents of our paper entitled " MSAM: Modular Statistical Analytical Model for MAC and Queuing Latency of VLC networks under ICS Conditions ". The all-out effort has been expended to address the comments and incorporate them in the revised manuscript accordingly.

In the following, please find our responses to your comments where the normal typeface is used to present your comments, and bold to our responses; all modifications to the original manuscript in response to all comments are marked up using the "Track Changes” function in the enclosed document  electronics-1228031-track changes.docx.

• This paper presents an interesting and novel model for multiple access control (MAC) in VLC networks, as well as for calculations of queuing delays and other parameters of these networks. It is named a Modular Statistical Analytical Model (MSAM). The mathematical tools used for its development are partly the same or similar to those used in another paper of one of the authors of this manuscript. I mean here the paper entitled "Analysis of Queuing Delay and Medium Access Distribution over Wireless Multihop  PANs" by M. Baz et al. However, the method and methodology mentioned were applied there to a quite different type of networks. A novelty of the MSAM model is undisputable. In particular, the fact that it takes into account collisions with transmissions from hidden and exposed nodes should be underlined. The results achieved and presented are valuable, and well documented.
• We are glad that you can see the values and novelty of our work.
• Some typos occur in the manuscript as, for example, "is appeared" on page 7, "3.2. Derviaion" on page 13 and some others.
• Sorry for the inconvenience; a thorough check for the whole paper has been conducted to correct all spotted typos.
• Moreover, in my opinion, abbreviations HNC and ENC occurring in Table 1 should be explained before.
• We do apologise as we missed defining them; the definition for these abbreviations has been added to the revised version; please see lines 370-371.